Vaughan Williams: A London Symphony

Penned between 1911 and 1913 and first heard in May 1914, Vaughan Williams's A London Symphony was dedicated to the memory of George Butterworth (whose ravishing 1913 idyll The Banks of Green Willow opens proceedings here). It's this original version that Richard Hickox and the LSO champion so eloquently on this sumptuous-sounding Chandos issue--and a very different beast it is from VW's final revision of 1933. For starters, there's more than a quarter-of-an-hour of extra material, much of it genuinely inspired and brimful of wondrous poetry. VW's scoring, too, was never more colourful and it's surely not too fanciful to detect many a foreshadowing of Holst's The Planets in particular. More significantly, the work takes on a darker, tragic dimension (nowhere more potently perhaps than in the slow movement) and there's an astonishing passage in the expanded epilogue that even anticipates the opening movement of the 1921 Pastoral Symphony. In hindsight, VW made all the right decisions (the scherzo's second half, haunting though it is, pales next to the shuddering intensity of the revised coda) but no one should miss the opportunity to experience his original thoughts in all their epic sweep and tingling vitality. Utterly compulsive listening then and a "must buy" if ever there was one. --Andrew Achenbach

1. The Banks Of Green Willow (Idyll) Composed By – George Butterworth - 6:15

A London Symphony (Symphony No. 2) Original 1913 Version Composed By – Ralph Vaughan Williams (1:01:19)

2. I Lento - Allegro Risoluto - 15:04

3. II Lento - 16:16

4. III Scherzo (Nocturne): Allegro Vivace - Andantino - 11:04

5. IV Andante Con Moto - Maestoso Alla Marcia (Quasi Lento) - Allegro - Andantino Ma Sostenuto - Tempo Primo - Allegro - Lento - Epilogue: Andante Sostenuto - Lento - 18:50